Equmeniakyrkans ecklesiologiska äventyr. Kyrkovetenskapliga reflektioner kring nyckelord vid bildande av ny kyrka

Abstract

The study gives an example of contemporary changes in the religious landscape in Sweden – the merger be-tween three mainstream Free Churches: the Baptist Union of Sweden, the United Methodist Church and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden. The new church was established on 4 June 2011 and later named Equmeniakyrkan (English: The Uniting Church in Sweden). The aim of this study is to reflect ecclesiological-ly over the merger process as an ecclesial practice. Key words (metaphors, concepts, phrases), used by the leaders in the merger process, are analyzed as “church language”. The underlying hypothesis is that a specific church language expresses and creates a specific life world, embedded in one or more ecclesial practices. This article is the first part of Fahlgren’s study of the ecclesiological adventure of Equmeniakyrkan. The focus is on the merger process – the church establishing practice. At the end of the article the author reflects on the preliminary result of the study regarding ecclesiology. The church language in Equmeniakyrkan is in general very secular and anthropocentric. The ecclesiology is largely missing the language of dogma.